Hi there. I have this domain name (www.thewebmarket.net) and is a forum now. But as I see I don't have any traffic and I have a very low number of members. I have some questions here: 1. Should I change the forum's script ? (I was thinking to buy VB...) 2. Should I change the site ? I mean to make it a blog or something like that... What do you think ?
You can attach a blog to it without ditching the forum. Then find ways to integrate and connect the blog and the forum so that visitors to one will visit the other. Maybe add the blog on a subdomain like [Keyword].webmarket.net.
Hey lumpy, lightless has given You a really cool idea. work with that. Also, I would advise to try to increase the number of members instead of giving up on it because everything takes time to acomplish. If You keep jumping from one thing to another You won't acomplish nothing! I think that You could create some kind of contest and give a prize to the winner and make people start posting on the forum to win that prize! Makes sense? I'm kinda speed writting!
Try to find something your site can do *unique*, something that makes people *need* to come to it and engage other people. A blog and/or a contest are definitely good starts. The more popular your target subject, the harder you have to work at making your site "needed" as opposed to "just another X". Marketing and promotion are half the battle, but even once you get a visitor, you want to give them a reason to come back. Ask yourself, "Who are my competitors in this area, and what do can I offer they currently do not". So for example, what can you do to make your site "needed" more then say, this place?
everyone usually says, contest is a good form of advertising, so I would do it. Also switch to vb if you plan to really do this and get in to it. If not stay with whatever you got.
The problem with forums is that people generally dont post unless there are other posts. Noone wants to be the lone poster on a deserted message board. In order to get your forums up above that 'magical' threshold, you may want to have a number of seed posts to get the ball rolling. You could buy posts. Cheaper just to make several accounts and post yourself ...least then you are assured good quality good luck
I agree whole heartedly. If it was easy, we'd all be sitting back on some tropical island enjoying our drinks and discussing amongst ourselves "Say, do you remember what it was like *before* we sold our sites to Google for boatloads of cash? Wasn't that a crazy time!" Specifics are hard, and there's no easy "push button, make millions" checklist that any of us can give (regardless of the spam in my mailbox proclaiming to sell me just that for $39.95), the best we can do is toss little things back and forth and see what it shakes loose.
All great suggestions. I would also add that you should start with very FEW categories in your forum and flesh those out before expanding (2-3 max to begin) it's tempting to put a bunch of things up there at first...but remember - you will also have to feed them all.